Karen, who leafleted at Women of Faith in Anaheim, CA on Sept. 10,
writes,

It went great. I passed out all 300 booklets in no time at all.

Thanks for making this possible. This is my second time doing it, and
I find it inspiring as well as just plain enjoyable. The women are all
so nice. In fact one woman gave me 3 booklets back after a few minutes
when she and her friends realized that they weren't interested. She said
she didn't want them to just get thrown away when I could give them to
somebody else. Very thoughtful!

This beautifully illustrated book looks at the lives and
relationships of rescued, formerly farmed animals. Many of the stories
are as poignant as the photographs. For many people, every chicken is
the same as every other chicken, but as these accounts attest, each has
a unique personality and life story. Even though the book is meant to
personalize nonhuman beings, the title refers to the average number of
animals who are spared suffering and death each year by each person’s
decision to adopt a vegan diet.

Many Christians believe that righteous actions are crucial to being
“justified” (i.e., acceptable to God), and certain sins can result in
condemnation by God. They find some of the best biblical support in
James. For example, James wrote, “So faith by itself, if it has no
works, is dead” (2:17). I think that serving God by caring for God’s
creation and showing compassion for what God has created can help us
feel closer to God and give meaning and direction to our lives. Is faith
a necessary component of this process?

Some of the most compassionate people I know reject the notion of a
supernatural being, and some of most hard-hearted people I know claim to
have a deep faith in God. Overall, I’ve not seen a correlation between
religious faith and compassion. As best I can tell, atheists, while
denying that a divine being ordains how we should live, still have faith
in a cosmology in the sense that they have beliefs about the way the
universe should be. For example, many atheists hold that all members of
a certain class of beings deserve to be treated with equal compassion
and respect. There are differences among atheists about who belongs to
this class. While many claim that all humans belong (though in practice
they largely restrict their concern to their nation, their community, or
their family), far fewer hold that nonhuman beings belong to this class.
I’ve not been impressed by the arguments for including all humans and
excluding all nonhumans (except, perhaps, for household animal
companions and members of certain esthetically pleasing species such as
giraffes and panda bears). I suspect that humans, who believe they
benefit from harmfully exploiting nonhumans, are swayed by weak
arguments that endorse a self-serving worldview.

Commonly, atheists seem to have difficulty abiding by a consistent
ethic; what about people of faith? I think that faith can help direct
works, particularly when works seem hopeless or inconsequential. I’ve
seen a lot of animal advocates “burn out” and abandon the movement
because they have been frustrated by the rate of progress and they have
emotionally traumatized by a sense of isolation and alienation from a
society that endorses animal abuse. Perhaps those whose lives are
focused on serving God can better weather the difficulties that
accompany challenging powerful forces.

Christianity teaches that we are called to be faithful, not to save
the world. A crucial part of being faithful is living faithfully, and
that means serving God by caring for what God has created. Indeed, James
wrote, “I by my works will show you my faith” (2:18). As I’ve discussed
in previous essays, serving God does not mean just making gestures of
good works – we should always aim to be as effective as possible. Even
if we fail to change the world, we have answered our calling to follow
Christ if we have done our best.